The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1887-02-17

may have been too rigid or severe In
religious discipline and cracked you over
the head with psalm book. 1t may be
that some partner in business, who was
member of an evangelical church, played
on you trick that disguised you with re-
ligion. 1t may be that you have associates
who have talked against Christianity in
your presence until you are ''all at sea-"
and you dwell more on things you do not
believe than on things you do believe. You
are in one respect like Lord Nelson, when
signal was lifted that he wished to disre-
gard, and he put his sea glass to his blind
eye and sand: Il really do not see the sig
nal" o, my nearer, put this field glass of
the Gospel no longer to your blind eye and
say can not see, but put it to your other
eye, tie eye of faith, and you will see
Christ, and He is all you need to see.
If you can believe nothing else, you GER
tainly believe in vicarious suffering, for
you see it almost every day in some shape.
Last month the steamship Knickerbocker,
of the Cromwell line, running between
New Orleans and here, was in a great
Storm, and the captain and crew saw the
schooner Mary d. Cranmer in distress.
The weather cold, the waves mountain
high, the first officer of the steamship and
crew of the schooner, and reached the YES
sci and towed it out of danger, the wind
shifting so that the schooner was saved.
But the five men of the steamship coming
back, their boat capsized, yet righted
again and came on, the sail
ors coated with Ice. The boat
capsized again, and three times upset and
was righted, and line was thrown the
poor fellows, but their hands and arms
were frozen so they could not grasp it, and
great wave rolled over them, and they
went down, never to rise till the sea gives
up it's dead. Appreciate that heroism and
self-sacrifce of the brave fellows we all
can, and can we not appreciate the Christ
who put out in a more biting cold and into
a more overwhelming surge to bring us
out of infinite peril into everlasting safety |
The wave of human hate rolled over Him
on one side, and the wave of hellish fury
rolled over Him on the other side. Oh, the
thickness of the night and the thunder OF
the tempest into which Christ plunged for
our rescue!
Come in on that one narrow beam, the
beam of the cross. Let ell else go and
cling to that. Put that under you, and
with the earnestness of a swimmer strug-
Cling for his life put out for the shore
There is great warm fire of welcome
already built, and already many, who were
as far out as you are, are standing in its
genial and Heavenly glow. The angels of
God rescue are wading out into the surf
to clutch your hand, and they know how
exhausted you are, and all the redeemed
prodlgals of Heaven are on the bench with
new white robes to clothe all those who
come in on broken pieces of the ship
My sympathies are for such all the more
because l was naturally skeptical, disposed
to question every thing about this life and
the next and was in danger of being furth-
er out to sea than any of the two hundred
and seventy-six in the Mediterranean
breakers, and was sometimes the annoy
ance of my theological professor because l
asked SO many questions. But I came in
on plank. l knew Christ was the Saviour
of sinners, and that was sinner, and ]
got ashore, and l do not propose to go out
on that sea again. / have not for thir-
ty minutes discussed the controverted
points of theology in thirty years. And
during the rest of my life do not propose
to discuss them for thirty seconds.
/ would rather, in mud scow, try tc
weather the worst cyclone that ever swept
up from the caribbean than risk my i'm
mortal soul in useless and perilous discus
sions in which some of my brethren in the
ministry are indulging They remind me
of company of sailors standing on Rams.
gate pier head. from which the life boats
are usually launched, and coolly discussing
the different style of oar-locks and how
deep boat ought to set in the water, while
hurricane was in full blast and there
are three steamers crowded with passen-
gers going to pieces in the offing. An old tar,
the muscles of his face working with nerv-
Gus excitement, cries out: This is no time
to discuss such things. Man the life boat
Who will volunteer? Out with her into
the surfl Pull my lads, pull for the wreck i
Ha hal now we have them. Lift them in
and lay them down on the bottom of the
boat Jack, you try to bring them to- Put
these fiannels around their hands and feet,
and l will pull for the shore. God help
mel There! Landedl Huzzaln When
there are so many struggling in the waves
of sin and sorrow and wretchedness, let all
else go but salvation for time and salvation
forever.
l bethink myself that there are some
here whose opportunity or whose life is a
mere wreck, and they have only small
piece left You started in your youth with
oil ohilo SOU anu CFtTy pTOu1lScu u
grand voyage, but you have sailed in the
wrong direction or have foundered on a
rock You have only fragment of time
left. Then come in on that one plank
''Some on broken pieces of the ship"
You admit that you are all broken up
one decade OF your life gone by, two de
cades, three decades, four decades, or
half century, perhaps three-quarters of q
century gone. The hour hand and the
minute hand of your clock OF life are al
most parallel. and soon it will be twelve
and your day ended. Clear discouraged
are you? I admit that it is sad thing to
give all of your lives that are worth any
thing to sin and the devil and then at last
to make God present of first-rate
corpse. But the past you can not recover
Get on board that old ship, you never will.
Have you only one more year left, one
more month, one more week, one more
day, one more hour-come in on that. Per-
haps if you get to Heaven God may let you
go out on some great mission to some other
world, where you can somewhat atone for
your lack of service in this.
From many a death-bed l have seen The
hands thrown up in deportation something
like this: 'sMy life has been wasted. had
good mental faculties, and fine social posi-
ton, and great opportunity, but through
wOrldliuoSS and great NEGLECT all has oone